Soon as the woods on shore look dim, Why should we yet our sail unfurl? There is not a breath the blue wave to curl Utawas' tide! this trembling moon EPISTLE IX. TO THE LADY CHARLOTTE R-WD-N. Nor many months have now been dream'd away zas, appeared to be a long incoherent story, of which I could understand but little, from the barbarous pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins, Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré And the refrain to every verse was, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais danser. I ventured to harmonize this air, and have published it. Without that charm which association gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings that are past, the melody may perhaps be thought common and trifling; but I remember when we have entered, at sunset, upon one of those beautiful lakes into which the St Lawrence so grandly and unexpectedly opens, I have heard this simple air with a pleasure which the finest compositions of the first masters have never given me; and now there is not a note of it which does not recal to my memory the dip of our oars in the St Lawrence, the flight of our boat down the Rapids, and all those new and fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive during the whole of this very interesting voyage. The above stanzas are supposed to be sung by those voyageurs who go to the Grande Portage by the Utawas River. For an account of this wonderful undertaking, see SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S General History of the Fur Trade, prefixed to his Journal. At the Rapid of St Ann they are obliged to take out part, if not the whole, of their lading. It is from this spot the Canadians consider they take their departure, as it possesses the last church on the island, which is dedicated to the tutelar saint of voyagers.-MACBENZIE'S General History of the Fur Trade. 2. Avendo essi per costume di avere in veneratione gli alberi grandi ed antichi, quasi che siano spesso ricetaccoli di anime beate." -Pietro della Valle, Part. Second. Lettera 16 da i giardini di Sciraz. Oh! I have wonder'd, like the peasant boy Who sings at eve his sabbath strains of joy, And when he hears the rude, luxuriant note Back to his ear on softening echoes float, Believes it still some answering spirit's tone, And thinks it all too sweet to be his own! I dream'd not then that, ere the rolling year Had fill'd its circle, I should wander here In musing awe; should tread this wondrous world, See all its store of inland waters hurl'd In one vast volume down Niagara's steep,' Or calm behold them, in transparent sleep, Where the blue hills of old Toronto shed Their evening shadows o'er Ontario's bed!Should trace the grand Cadaraqui, and glide Down the white Rapids of his lordly tide Through massy woods, through islets flowering fair, Through shades of bloom, where the first sinful pair For consolation might have weeping trod, When banish'd from the garden of their God! Oh, Lady! these are miracles, which man, Caged in the bounds of Europe's pigmy plan, Can scarcely dream of: which his eye must see, To know how beautiful this world can be! But soft!--the tinges of the west decline, And night falls dewy o'er these banks of pine. Among the reeds, in which our idle boat Is rock'd to rest, the wind's complaining note Dies, like a half-breathed whispering of flutes; Along the wave the gleaming porpoise shoots, And I can trace him, like a watery star, 2 Down the steep current, till he fades afar Amid the foaming breaker's silvery light, Where yon rough Rapids sparkle through the night! Here, as along this shadowy bank I stray, And the smooth glass-snake, 3 gliding o'er my way, Shows the dim moonlight through his scaly form, Fancy, with all the scene's enchantment warm, Hears in the murmur of the nightly breeze, Some Indian Spirit warble words like these: From the clime of sacred doves, 4 Where the blessed Indian roves, Through the air on wing, as white As the spirit-stones of light,5 I When I arrived at Chippewa, within three miles of the Falls, it was too late to think of visiting them that evening, and I lay awake all night with the sound of the cataract in my ears. The day following I consider as a kind of era in my life, and the first glimpse which I caught of those wonderful Falls gave me a feeling which nothing in this world can ever excite again. To Colonel Brock, of the 49th, who commanded at the Fort, I am particularly indebted for his kindness to me during the fortnight I remained at Niagara. Among many pleasant days, which I passed with him and his brother officers, that of our visit to the Tuscarora Indians was not the least interesting. They received us all in their ancient costume; the young men exhibited, for our amusement, in the race, the bat-game, etc.,-while the old and the women sat in groups under the surrounding trees: and the picture altogether was as beautiful as it was new to me. 2 ANBUREY, in his Travels, has noticed this shooting illumination which porpoises diffuse at night through the St Lawrence, v. i, p. 29. The glass-snake is brittle and transparent. 4 The departed spirit goes into the Country of Souls, where, according to some, it is transformed into a dove.-CHARLEVOIX, upon the Traditions and the Religion of the Savages of Canada. See the curious Fable of the American Orpheus in LAFITAU, tom. i, p. 402. The mountains appeared to be sprinkled with white stones, which glistened in the sun, and were called by the Indians manetoe aseniah, or spirit-stones.-MACKENZIE'S Journal. Which the eye of morning counts Where the wave, as clear as dew, Then, when I have stray'd awhile Then my playful hand I steep I was thinking h ́re of what CARVER says so beautifully in his description of one of these lakes:When it was calm, and the sun shone bright, I could sit in my canoe, where the depth was upwards of six fathoms, and plainly see huge piles of stone at the bottom, of different shapes, some of which appeared as if they bad been hewn ; the water was at this time as pure and transparent as air, and my canoe seemed as if it hung suspended in that element. It was impossible to look attentively through this limpid medium at the rocks below, without finding, before many minutes were elapsed, your head swim and your eyes no longer able to behold the dazzling scene.> 2. Après avoir traversé plusieurs isles peu considerables, nous en trouvâmes le quatrième jour une famense, nommée l'isle de Manitoualin.-Voyages du Baron de LAHONTAN, tom. i, lett. 15. Manataulin signifies a Place of Spirits, and this island in Lake Huron is held sacred by the Indians. The Wakon-Bird, which probably is of the same species with the Bird of Paradise, receives its name from the ideas the Indians have of its superior excellence; the Wakon-Bird being, in their language, the Bird of the Great Spirit.»-Monse. The islands of Lake Erie are surrounded to a considerable distance by the large pond-lily, whose leaves spread thickly over the surface of the lake, and form a kind of bed for the water-snakes in summer. The gold-thread is of the vine kind, and grows in swamps. The roots spread themselves just under the surface of the morasses, and are easily drawn out by handfuls. They resemble a large entangled skein of silk, and are of a bright yellow.-MORSE. L'oiseau mouche, gros comme un hanneton, est de toutes conleurs, vives et changeantes: il tire sa subsistence des fleurs comme les abeilles; son nid est fait d'un coton très-fin suspendu à une branche d'arbre. Voyage aux Indes Occidentales, par M. Bossu, zd part, lett. xx. By the garden's fairest spells, Oft, when hoar and silvery flakes To the wig-wam's cheering ray, Feather'd round with falling snow, To the land where spirits rest! Thus have I charm'd, with visionary lay, The lonely moments of the night away; And now, fresh daylight o'er the water beams! Once more embark'd upon the glittering streams, Our boat flies light along the leafy shore, Shooting the falls, without a dip of oar Or breath of zephyr, like the mystic bark The poet saw, in dreams divinely dark, Borne, without sails, along the dusky flood, 3 While on its deck a pilot angel stood, And, with his wings of living light unfurl'd, Coasted the dim shores of another world! Yet oh! believe me in this blooming maze So heavenly calm, as when a stream or hill, 1 Emberiza byemalis.—See IMLAY's Kentucky, page 280. 2 Lafitad wishes to believe, for the sake of his theory, that there was an order of vestals established among the Iroquois Indians; but I am afraid that Jacques Carthier, upon whose authority he supports himself, meant any thing but vestal institutions by the cabanes publiques which he met with at Montreal.-See Lafitat, Mœurs des Sauvages Americains, etc. tom. í, p. 173. 3 Vedi che sdegna gli argomenti umani Vedi come l' ha dritte verso 'l cielo DANTE, Purgator, cant. ii. Or veteran oak, like those remember'd well, Whether I trace the tranquil moments o'er For pure and brightening comments on the dead! IMPROMPTU, AFTER A VISIT TO MRS, OF MONTREAL. "T WAS but for a moment-and yet in that time She crowded the impressions of many an hour: Her eye had a glow, like the sun of her clime, Which waked every feeling at once into flower! Oh! could we have stolen but one rapturous day, What we had not the leisure or language to speak, We should find some more exquisite mode of revealing, And, between us, should feel just as much in a week, As others would take a millenium in feeling! WRITTEN ON PASSING DEADMAN'S ISLAND.' Late in the Evening, September, 1804. This is one of the Magdalen Islands, and, singularly enough, is the property of Sir Isaac Coffin. The above lines were suggested by a superstition very common among sailors, who call this ghost-ship, I think, the flying Dutchman.. Her sails are full, though the wind is still, And there blows not a breath her sails to fill! Oh! what doth that vessel of darkness bear' There lieth a wreck on the dismal shore Where, under the moon, upon mounts of frost, Yon shadowy bark hath been to that wreck, To Deadman's Isle, in the eye of the blast, Oh! hurry thee on-oh! hurry thee on, TO THE BOSTON FRIGATE.' ON LEAVING HALIFAX FOR ENGLAND, OCTOBER 1804. Νόστου προφασις γλυκερου. WITH triumph this morning, oh Boston! I hail The stir of thy deck and the spread of thy sail, For they tell me I soon shall be wafted, in thee, To the flourishing isle of the brave and the free, And that chill Nova-Scotia's unpromising strand 2 Is the last I shall tread of American land. Well-peace to the land! may the people at length, Know that freedom is bliss, but that honour is strength; That though man have the wings of the fetterless wind, Of the wantonest air that the north can unbind, We were thirteen days on our passage from Quebec to Halifax. and I had been so spoiled by the very splendid hospitality with which my friends of the Phaeton and Boston had treated me, that I was but ill prepared to encounter the miseries of a Canadian ship. The weather, however, was pleasant, and the scenery along the river delightful. Our passage through the Gut of Canso, with a bright sky and a fair wind, was particularly striking and romantic. Commanded by Captain J. E. Douglas, with whom I returned to England, and to whom I am indebted for many, many kindnesses. In truth, I should but offend the delicacy of my friend Douglas, and, at the same time, do injustice to my own feelings of gratitude, d d I attempt to say how much I owe to him. 2 Sir John Wentworth, the Governor of Nova-Scotia, very kindly allowed me to accompany him on his visit to the college which they have lately established at Windsor, about forty miles from Halifax, and I was indeed most pleasantly surprised by the beauty and fertility of the country which opened upon us after the bleak and rocky wilderness by which Halifax is surrounded. I was told that, in travelling onwards, we should find the soil and the scenery improve, and it gave me much pleasure to know that the worthy Governor has by no means such an inamabile regnum as I was, at first sight, inclined to believe. Yet if health do not sweeten the blast with her bloom, Farewell to the few I have left with regret, When they've asked me the manners, the mind, or the mien Of some bard I had known, or some chief I had seen, I told them each luminous trait that I knew, Shall recur to their ear, they 'll recal me the same I have been to them now, young, unthoughtful, and blest, Ere hope had deceived me or sorrow depress'd! eye, But, DOUGLAS! while thus I endear to my mind Not a tract of the line, not a barbarous shore, But see!-the bent top-sails are ready to swell— To the boat-I am with thee-Columbia, farewell! TO LADY H ON AN OLD RING FOUND AT TUNBRIDGE-Wells. Tunnebrige est à la même distance de Londres que Fontainebleau l'est de Paris. Ce qu'il y a de beau et de galant dans l'un et dans l'autre sexe s'y rassemble au temps des eaux. La compagnie,= etc. etc.-See Mémoires de Grammont, seconde partie, chap. iii. TUNBRIDGE-WELLS, August, 1805. WHEN Grammont graced these happy springs, And Tunbridge saw, upon her Pantiles, The merriest wight of all the kings Like us, by day they rode, they walk'd, The only different trait is this, That woman then, if man beset her, Was rather given to saying « yes,» Because, as yet, she knew no better ! Each night they held a coterie, And husbands not the least alarm'd! They call'd up all their school-day pranks, As- Why are husbands like the Mint?» Is just to set the name and print Why is a garden's wilder'd maze The weeds, which have no business there! And thus they miss'd and thus they hit, While others of a pun miscarried. 'T was one of those facetious nights From whence it can be fairly traced All this I 'll prove, and then to you, Long may your ancient inmates give Let no pedantic fools be there, For ever be those fops abolish'd, With heads as wooden as thy ware, And, Heaven knows! not half so polish'd. But still receive the mild, the gay, ΤΟ NEVER mind how the pedagogue proses, Old Cloe, whose withering kisses Have long set the loves at defiance, Now, done with the science of blisses, May fly to the blisses of science! Young Sappho, for want of employments, But for you to be buried in books- Read more than in millions of pages! EXTRACT FROM THE DEVIL AMONG THE SCHOLARS.»' Τι κακον ο γελος; Polymaths, and Polyhistors, Saying, 't was just as sweet to kiss her-oh! Mamurra, a dogmatic philosopher, who never doubted about any thing, except who was his father. Nulla de re unquam præterquam de patre dubitavit.-In vit. He was very learned—« Là dedans (that is, in his head, when it was opened) le Punique heurte le Persan, l'Hébreu choque l'Arabique, pour ne point parler de la mauvaise intelligence du Latin avec le Grec, etc.-See l'His toire de Montmaur, tom. ii, page 91. Bombastus was one of the names of that great scholar and quack Paracelsus. Philippus Bombastus latet sub splendido tegmine Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi, says Stadelius de circumforanea Literatorum vanitate.-He used to fight the devil every night with a broad-sword, to the no small terror of his pupil Oporinus, who has recorded the circumstance. (See OPORIN. Vit. apud Christian. Gryph. Vit. Select, quorundam Eruditissimorum, etc.) Paracelsus had but a poor opinion of Galen. My very beard (says he in his Paragranum) has more learning in it than either Galen or Avicenna, # The angel who scolded St Jerom for reading Cicero, as GRATIAN tells the story, in his concordantia discordantium Canouum, and says that for this reason bishops were not allowed to read the Classics, << Episcopus Gentilium libros non legat.-Distinc. 37. But Gratian is notorious for lying-besides, angels have got no tongues, as the CHRYSOST. Homil. in Epist, ad Hebræos. illustrious pupil of Pantenes assures us: Ouy dis quY TRWTA, BUT, whither have these gentle ones, Led my truant brains a dancing? Instead of wise encomiastics I promised that I would give the remainder of this poem, but, as my critics do not seem to relish the sublime learning which it contains, they shall have no more of it. With a view, however, to the edification of these gentlemen, I have prevailed on an industrious friend of mine, who has read a great number of unnecessary books, to illuminate the extract with a little of his precious erudition. ούτως εκείνοις η γλωττα ουδ' αν οργανα τις φων porns ayyelois.-CLEM. ALEXAND. Stromat. Now, how an angel could scold without a tongue, I shall leave the angelic Mrs -to determine. 4 The idea of the Rabbins about the origin of woman is singular. They think that man was originally formed with a tail, like a monkey, but that the Deity cut off this appendage behind, and made woman of it. Upon this extraordinary supposition the following reflection is founded: If such is the tie between women and men, |